IE7 no threat, but Microsoft gets two more years supervision

"The Justice Department, in a court filing, said yesterday that it found that the design of Microsoft's new Web browser did not pose a threat to competition in the lucrative new market for Internet search," reports The New York Times.

However, the main purpose of the statement was different. As CNet reports:

The Justice Department said that it wants to extend certain parts of the final judgment in the case, set to expire in the fall of 2007, until 2009. It said that Microsoft has agreed to the two-year extension of the program, under which it licenses its Windows communications protocols.

The problem isn't so much the protocols as the documentation:

The government said that Microsoft's effort to rewrite significant portions of the documentation will take time, making it necessary to extend the term of the deal. The department said that extension request "is not a result of any belief that Microsoft has willfully violated the final judgment."

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